Article excerpt

Sport has been a part of every culture since the beginning of man. Its importance has been linked with religious ceremonies and medical treatments. A key area that has been focused on when studying sport has been socialization. Coakley (1998) defined socialization as the process of learning and social development that occurs as people interact with one another and become acquainted with the social world in which they live, and as they form ideas about whom they are, and make decisions about their goals and behaviors. More specifically socialization includes: (a) the characteristics of individual being socialized, (b) people and places that did the socialization, and (c) the end results of the socialization (Coakley, 1998). There have been many different theories that have contributed to the understanding of socialization and sport. These include critical theory, interactionist theory, functionalist theory, and conflict theory. The purposes of this study was to examine the socialization processes of disabled a thletes and examine the possible theories that would be supported, thereby gaining insight into how men with disabilities become involved in elite sport, the barriers they overcome, and the benefits they derive. …